Frogs

By
Carol Strike

| Introduction | Task | Resources | Process | Assessment | Conclusion |

Introduction
At the beginning of the year, it is so important to set the climate so the maximum amount of learning can be there for every student. I have found a great idea to accomplish this.

The Task
This is a section of my unit that I use at the beginning of the year to set the climate of my classroom. I will use the dissecting of the frog and the idea that some frogs are becoming deformed. We will use different sites to show the children this and then have the children do some investigating of ponds and fill out a survey of their findings with the help of their parents. I will use the survey as a way to start a positive communication between home and school. We will graph our findings and use the graphs.

Resources
I will use these sites to accomplish this task.

Fun sites	Survey
http://cgee.hamline.edu/frogs http://www.uen.org/utahlink/pond http://www.teleport.com/~dstroy/frogland.html http://frog.simplenet.com/froggy/ http://www.pca.state.mn.us/hot/frogs.html	http://mncs.k12.mn.us/frog/survey.html

The Process

1. After dissecting a frog with the class, we use a worksheet of a frog which the children will label with a partner.
2. We go to the Internet site that shows frogs that are coming in ponds which are not like ours. The sites are:
   http://mncs.k12.us/frog/
   http://www.pca.state.mn.us/hot/frogs.html
3. After going through these sites and discussing the differences between the frogs, we visit the other web sites. We make a chart showing the likes and differences of these frogs.
4. We will make a list of reasons why they feel the frogs are changing. We will compare our list with the list of reasons found by http://www.pca.state.me.us/hot/frogs.html.
5. I will send the survey home and have the children fill out the survey on the frogs they find with their parents.
6. When the frogs and the surveys come back to school, we will graph our findings and do some measuring to compare the frogs.

Assessment
For an assessment, I have a team of my students tell a group of the other first grader students about our project and what they have learned about the frogs, deformed frogs, why they are deformed. I also have them draw or write in their journal about what they liked and learned from this unit.

Conclusion
I find that all the children are very involved with learning because of the frogs and the hands on. I as a teacher find out many things about my children and where I want to go as a teacher for the best way to plan out the year. It also involves the parents in a positive way so we can work together to help their child grow.

Clipart used with permission from http://www.dgill.simplenet.com/tfrog8.html